474 



TROMOPTERA 



VII. BOMBYLID^. 





(i^. 



Fio. 209.— Bomfti/ZtMs major J. x 3. 



Orthorrhaphous brachycerous flies of moderate to rather large size, 

 seldom small nor remarkably large, often bearing bristles but the bristles 

 usually concealed in the dense furry pubescence. Proboscis often long and 

 porrect. Legs thin and usually almost without bristles but with minute 

 spicules, used for alighting purposes only ; pulvilli two only. 



Head rather round or transverse, narrower than or as liroad as or occasionally 

 broader than the thorax, and so closely applied to the thorax that any neck is 

 seldom conspicuously api)arent. Frons and vertex not at all sunk between the 

 eyes ; occiput puffed out from the eyes (except in Systronimv) and soinetimes bearing 

 long i)ostocular hairs ; ocelli present. Proboscis usually very long and porrect (and 

 then horny and pointed), but sometimes short and witli broad sucker-flaps ; palpi 

 one- or two-jointed. Eyes bare, usually touching or at least approximated in the 

 male (and even touching in both sexes in St/sfropus). Antennae porrect, approximate 

 or remote at the base; third joint not annulated, though in many sijccies a distinct 

 suture cuts off the base of the joint, and usually produced style-like or ending in 

 a style or circlet of l)ristly hairs, but sometimes without any process. 



Thorax in all British species without any conspicuous chaitotactic bristles, 

 though tufts of longer pubescence of a somewhat scaly nature may occur above the 

 wing-base and on the postalar calli, but in many non-British species praesutural, 

 supra-alar, and postalar bristles are evident, or even sometimes {Toxophorimp) an 

 elaborate and unusual chiietotaxy, while in the Anthracimp closely adherent scales 

 often occur hidden beneath the long dense pubescence, though when these scales are 

 abundant the pubescence is less dense ; metapleurae usually densely hairy, Imt the 

 liypoi)leur8e bare so as to allow a free movement of the middle femora. Scutellmn 

 usually clothed like the thorax, but sometimes with inconspicuous (or rarely 

 with conspicuous) marginal bristles or bristly hairs, and sometimes clothed only 

 with scales, never armed ; metanotum small, concealed under the scutellum. 



Abdomen {BomhyJirKp) almost globular and clothed with dense furry pubescence 

 intermingled with which may be some longer straggling hairs, or {Anthracime) more 

 elongate with almost parallel sides and less furry pubescence on (at least) the disc, 

 or {CyUenia^ MuUo, etc.) wdth strong hindmarginal bristles, or {Systropus) very 

 elongate slender and bare ; the six to eight segments often difficult to trace under 



